Monthly Archives: November 2014

This year’s television commercials have exemplified the advancing encroachment of the retail world against days which deserve special respect. Ads showcasing Black Friday’s special sales have thrown in the side note that their stores will also be open at various times on “Thursday.” Why do they avoid using the name the day they are ruining for so many workers? (For the record, it’s called “Thanksgiving.”)

But the fourth Thursday of November set aside for giving thanks and enjoying family and close friends is only the most recent casualty of the passion for $ at the expense of quality of life.

Sunday, a 2,000-year-old day of religious observation and rest, has long since been relegated to an ordinary workday of straight-time pay where the bottom line is the new deity. The march toward a completely worldly calendar has also run over days set aside for special commemoration. Business establishments which used to observe the solemnity of Memorial Day, President’s Day (formerly Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’ Birthday, ten days apart), Veterans Day and the Fourth of July now run loudly publicized sales which require mandatory staffing, usually at straight-pay, to care for the multitudes who rarely remember the reason for these holidays. Martin Luther King’s Birthday is too recent to receive the respect it would have generations ago. Baby Boomers and those older recall how New Year’s Day was a holiday for all except emergency personnel.

The post-Christian United States has pushed Easter to a business-as-usual day often punctuated by Opening Day celebrations by my beloved, but misguided, major league baseball. (Sometimes this indignity is avoided by placing these hyped events on Good Friday – great way to make it worse.) Of course, our Jewish friends already know how hard it is to observe the high religious days in the Americas.

We can begin to start the path to sanity by remembering that the second holiday in November is called Thanksgiving, it’s not just the Thursday before Black Friday. It was created for a serious purpose. Thanksgiving should be enjoyed in a way that the events of the following day do not infringe on its celebration. This would rule out any store openings before the usual daily start of business on Friday so that typically marginally paid employees don’t have to squeeze their special day to get to bed early for 6AM, 3AM or midnight openings.

Hats off to those companies who resisted the temptation to be open on Thanksgiving! It may seem naïve to think this, but perhaps their example will encourage the buying public to reconsider its priorities and to patronize those businesses who respect holidays.

Ever since his bold tell-it-like-it-really-is speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 7, 2013, Dr. Benjamin S. Carson has been receiving well-deserved attention as a possible candidate for national political office. His analytical and non-ideological approach to solving our nation’s problems is very attractive to the thoughtful voter.

Fellow WordPress blogger, Tom Quiner, recently posted a guest column article by Tiffinay Compiano on on his “Quiner’s Diner” about the good doctor. It is a “must read.”

Regarding the often-used statement that something is “not brain surgery,” I believe we have reached the point that it does apply to our nation’s future.

Why?

1) Our economy has not returned to good health. It is still besieged by increasing runaway national debt fever. We treat the symptoms of budgetary malady with redistribution of wealth which only creates pain in previously healthy organs without addressing root causes.

We also perform a 21st century version of the 18th century bloodletting performed on patients. Our modern edition saps economic strength by putting increasing regulation and taxation on the very systems (businesses large and small) which are capable of strengthening the economy, while ignoring the tumor that is the federal government.

2) Our infrastructure of bridges and highways is suffering osteoporosis from a lack of funds being set aside for future repairs and replacements.

3) Retirees’ futures are looking very anemic as their Social Security tax withholdings have been used for just about everything except for being returned to them with a little interest.

4) Increasing moral indulgences over the last fifty years have spawned numerous social ills which the uninformed think can be partially solved with more mandated taxpayer funded birth control – the very substance which leads men to use women more than ever before. In addition, it prevents the basic unit of civilized society, the family, from forming or assists in its destruction.

We have finally reached the ultimate in psychotic reasoning: killing the unborn is an acceptable way to treat some economic aches and pains.

5) The U.S. is also suffering the weight gain of out-of-control immigration. Let me be clear, immigration is not inherently bad. In fact, just like reasonable muscle-building, it has made our nation strong. However, opening the floodgates by presidential statements to foreign leaders followed by wanton executive orders puts stress on the heart of our nation – those generations of families who took the effort to become nationalized since 1776 (as my Colombian-born father did in 1959) on their way to contributing to our country’s well-being.

6) Our Constitution is being both neglected and abused by the President and some of his disciples like Sen. Harry Reid. Restoring this document to full vigor is critical to the health of our republic.

7) Meanwhile, overseas cancers are growing which the executive branch of our government chooses to ignore or deal with on a deliberately delayed basis. ISIS is just the latest mutation of Islamic terrorism. We see troubles in Middle East, Africa and soon to a developed country near you. It joins the problems caused by Syria’s civil war, Putin messing with the Ukraine, China’s attempt to swallow the southeast Asia shipping lanes, etc.

This is not an exhaustive list of the political and societal diseases we face, but the urgency is clear. Yes, solving our problems has reached the point to where we actually do need a brain surgeon’s help.

From the previously linked Compiano article: “Here’s an interesting take-away point: Our founding fathers were farmers, inventors, and doctors. Even more, five medical doctors signed the Declaration of Independence.”

Returning control of the Senate to the Republicans was the first step toward ending our 6-year nightmare of: accelerating national debt, illegal actions against those who disagree with the Administration, suppression of freedom of religion, misrepresentation of the health of the nation’s economy, encouraging reliance on the federal government and abandonment of our allies. Should also mention unconstitutional changes in laws, covering up overseas murders to ensure election victory, subsidized sex and killing of innocents, normalizing disordered behavior, looking into the private lives of citizens while looking the other way on issues of national security, closing the door on deliberation in the Senate, but keeping the doors wide open for voter fraud under the guise of discrimination. This list is far from complete. In short, the shining city on a hill had fallen into the Valley of Darkness by a mudslide of its own doing.

This all-night party proceeded as if there was no concern for our nation’s future or for our individual eternal lives. Just as all are affected when some members of the family stay up all night reveling irresponsibly in our house, we, too, will have to deal with his hangover. But deal with it we must. The key will be whether the ringleader of the orgy, President Obama , will consent to the wisdom of timeless values and cooperate with the voters’ reprimand in yesterday’s mid-term election. He may still have his pen, but his phone has been disconnected.

However, the Republicans should know that Obama’s reprimand is also a stern word of caution to them, too. The public is not particularly enamored with them either. Passing on this two-year window of opportunity will not be without its punishment.

The clean-up begins immediately. May Congress and the President work together sincerely so that we may soon greet another “Morning in America”! 1

1– recalling the theme of President Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984

Like any hotly contested election, the 2014 Battle for the Senate exposes the true philosophies of those involved. In Colorado, an ad for Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall attempts to cast his opponent, Cory Gardner (R-CO, 4th district), in a bad light by stating that Gardner would support making abortion a felony.1

Really, is Gardner serious?!

How could he think of making the wanton killing of an innocent human a felony?

… Come on, Democrats, stop ignoring the obvious: Abortion is not a “women’s issue,” but an all-encompassing human rights issue. Killing the vulnerable affects all of society. Its rationalization demeans human life and makes us increasingly desensitized to other atrocities. Eventually, no amount of civil law will fix a morally rotten nation.

1 – The assumption is that the perpetrators of abortion would be guilty of a felony. Different consideration could be given to the mother who is often under duress when she makes the decision to have an abortion.